Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa, 2024
In this beautiful novel Nahr, a young Palestinian woman, fights for a better life for her family as she travels as a refugee throughout the Middle East.
I don’t generally do reading challenges (my to-read list is too, too long), but I have made an exception this year for The Big Fat Anti-Oppression reading challenge from Books in the Time of Chaos. It has 24 entries, and I figure I will add my reads to this thread at the end of each month. @bookstodon
@bookstodon May:
21: Vauhini Vara's The Immortal King Rao, in which Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are preempted by the Coconut corporation, and the world still goes to hell.
8: Parismita Singh's excellent short story collection Peace Has Come, telling stories of life under ceasfire and curfew and not-quite-peace.
@bookstodon June:
5: Maryse Condé’s I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem, which plays around with history to glorious effect.
10: Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, which manages to capture horror and delight and oppression and so is naturally regularly banned.
17: George Takei et als’ They Called Us Enemy, which illustrates both the injustice of collective punishment, the nuanced modes of resistance, and the limitations thereof.
Jane is a genealogy tutor who enjoys helping people discover their family history. She never expected to meet Robert, a famous actor who needs her genealogy expertise. He's also interested in Jane as more than a friend, but Jane is not ready for the media attention and the glamour of dating a star. Can she overcome her fears and find love in the spotlight?
@bookstodon
A very, very good book, nuanced and thoughtful. To my eye, its explanation of how we got where we are is spot on, but then, he is a member of the elite talking to another member of the elite (by education, if not income; I have a PhD).
But in the end his policy pronunciations seem...timid, given the scope of the problems we face.
I’m reading the first 3 volumes of this by way of preparation for China Miéville’s(!) forthcoming contribution to the IP. Pretty good writing for a Hollywood actor, I thought, and brilliant art, but basically pretty pedestrian.
Ink Blood Sister Scribe is on sale at Kobo AU right now and might also be on sale at your favourite provider. This has been one of my favourite fantasy reads so far this year.
Finished reading through the copyedit of the Owen Archer mystery coming out in December. Read it aloud to catch repetitions, changes in name forms, etc.--I always find things neither me, my beta readers, my agent, my editor, nor the copyeditor caught. Well worth the effort. A satisfying few weeks. I'll send it off to my editor tomorrow.
A Snake in the Barley, Owen Archer 15, out 3 December! @bookstodon @books #historicalfiction
On the eastern cape of southern Africa a land existed for but a brief moment in time, formed by a group of cultural castaways, strengthened via European investment and terrorized by dark forces. Amid this searing slice of savannah, male ambition, feminine yearning and the hunger of an ancient evil clash … with catastrophic results.